Language has been a witness to the beauty of truth since the dawn of man. There are few words that are more universal than “mom and dad” and “boy and girl”, in any language. These words, among others, convey not only truth, but objective reality. To redefine language is to deny reality and to deny the revealed truth of God and His creation.
Today’s culture reflects the self-centered subjectivity of humanity in all its aspects. Included in this relativistic mindset are euthanasia, abortion, and self-identification. To justify one’s desires, proponents of these ideologies go so far as to demand affirmation for their perversion of the truth. The usual path to achieving “one’s own truth” is to distort language, by redefining age-old words and expressions.
This is exactly what is being done with the push for euthanasia and assisted suicide. This phenomenon of hastening people’s deaths is being mandated all over society, specifically in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. This is being enabled by well-chosen words on the part of euthanasia advocates and is being propagated throughout the western hemisphere.
Ruth Marker, executive director of the International Anti-Euthanasia Task Force and author of Deadly Compassion (Wim. Morrow & Co.), once said that “All social engineering is preceded by verbal engineering”. In 1996, she wrote a comprehensive article entitled “The Art of Verbal Engineering” with Wesley J. Smith, for the Duquesne Law Review, about euthanasia and assisted dying. What was once regarded as unacceptable has gradually become palatable, in large part due to the softening of language, the redefinition of certain words and the use of euphemisms. Language has been engineered towards a new social construct which accepts the killing of our fellow human beings in the name of compassion and rejects the notion of God deciding when our time on earth is over.
The same type of verbal engineering and social construct has been implemented for years in relation to the normalization of abortion. Pro-choice advocates are, in essence, people who stand up for abortion, who defend abortion, who want abortion to be the law of the land, etc… The moniker “pro-choice” is a much softer-sounding title than “pro-abortion” or “pro-baby-killing” would be. Therefore, over time, abortion advocates have subtly begun to use a more “user-friendly” banner. Everyone likes to be able to choose what they desire, so siding with “choosing” is much more acceptable than siding with “abortion”, which is nothing less than the killing of an innocent human being, at its earliest stages of life. If words that mirror the truth would be used, there would probably be much less support for abortion.
In fact, I have noticed that the “pro-choice” side does not actually use the word “abortion”; they use misnomers and duplicitous language to talk about their agendas. Such expressions as “reproductive health care”, “reproductive rights”, “emergency health care”, “women’s right to choose”, and the like is now very common. It is the same concept for Planned Parenthood, the organization which provides contraception and abortions for women. The name itself is deceptive and is a lie. They are not helping women on planning to be a parent; they are providing women with the means of not being a parent. They are being deceptive, by the very name they are using to identify themselves.
When I was a child growing up in the seventies, I would hear this name bandied about on television or by adults around me. I had no idea what they were discussing, and I had no clue what Planned Parenthood really was. Being a child, I was innocently relying on my knowledge of the words “planned” and “parenthood”. I naturally assumed that this was a way of planning on how to be a family, which I thought was a good thing. Herein lies the path of brainwashing minds by the simple expedient of false language. A benign, good, wholesome name for an organization that oversees the willful destruction of babies.
In fact, I remember that I had told my mother one day, from the height of my childish innocence, that Planned Parenthood was helping people have families. She corrected me immediately and told me that it was the exact opposite. I later realized for myself the accuracy of her reply. But not everyone realizes the truth about the perversion of language. If truth were the cornerstone of every organization, politician, and agenda, there would be much less confusion.
The perversion of language, via redefining words and changing accepted definitions, is a falsification of truth, to indoctrinate society at large into accepting the unacceptable. What is especially egregious is that impressionable and vulnerable populations, mainly the younger generation, are being manipulated into believing agenda-driven ideologies, to their own detriment.
One group being particularly targeted is minors, who are being radically exploited by the current transgender ideology. Through verbal engineering, lies and social construct, children and teenagers are led to believe that changing one’s sex is possible. Confusion is being sowed in their minds by dint of using such terms as “gender fluidity”, “non-binary” and the like, to override the good-old-fashioned biological truth of “male and female”.
For all appearances, the proponents of abortion, euthanasia and transgender ideologies, have, for now, succeeded in advancing their cause. The situation seems hopeless at times, given all the narratives being circulated in favor of cultural ideologies. However, objective truth, based on science, and on God’s creation, will eventually triumph over the subjective and deceitful verbal and social constructs, instituted by men and women who deny God and science.
It would therefore be very helpful if atheists, who usually rely on science, were to participate in re-establishing the basic genetic, biological truth of binary sexual identity, despite their unbelief in God.
As for believers, we must also add our voices to the fray. The revealed truth of God’s creation for all of humanity is the way forward. It boils down to the basic tenet of God’s creation: life begins at conception and ends at natural death, and male and female He created them. It is time for the relativistic mindset of today’s culture to end.
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